Fact Check: Unrelated Video Used To Accuse Fictitious Congress Worker Of Killing Cow For Priyanka Gandhi’s Wayanad Win
The video is not related to Wayanad LS byelection or Priyanka Gandhi. While a few social media users and news reports claimed it was from Manipur, there is no conclusive evidence about its origin.
A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) claims to show “Kerala Congress media in-charge Mohammed Mujahid Islam shooting a cow for Priyanka Gandhi’s victory in the Wayanad by-election”. This post is being shared in the context of Priyanka Gandhi winning the Wayanad Lok Sabha byelection held on 13 November 2024. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
The archived post can be found here.
Claim: A video shows Kerala Congress media in-charge Mohammed Mujahid Islam shooting a cow for Priyanka Gandhi’s victory in the Wayanad by-election.
Fact: This video is not related to the Wayanad Lok Sabha byelection or Priyanka Gandhi. While a few social media users and news reports claimed it was from Manipur, there is no conclusive evidence about its origin. However, the viral video has been circulating on social media since May 2024 whereas the Election Commission of India issued the Wayanad by-election notification on 15 October 2024, with voting on 13 November 2024 and counting on 23 November 2024. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the truth behind the viral video, we conducted a reverse image search of the keyframes. The search led us to a May 2024 Free Press Journal news article (archive) featuring a screenshot of the same viral video. According to the article, the video is from Manipur.
According to this report, the video was shared on social media claiming to be from Manipur (here) (archive). PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) India, an international animal rights organisation, responded (archive), by stating that its Cruelty Response Team is working with the Manipur Police’s Cyber Crime Cell to confirm the location of the incident. Once verified, PETA India will coordinate with the local district police to register an FIR and take necessary action. Several other news articles from May 2024 that report the same details are available here and here. (archive here and here)
When the same video went viral in May 2024, Factly reached out to PETA (India) for further clarification. In their response, PETA stated, “The Cyber Crime Unit (CCU) of the Manipur Police Headquarters is conducting a thorough investigation into the video. The dialect spoken in the video is identified as the Thadau dialect, and CCU officials informed PETA that it is associated with the Kuki tribe. Additionally, when a user on X suggested (archive) that the incident may have occurred in the Senapati district of Manipur, PETA conveyed this information to the CCU. However, CCU officials clarified that Senapati district is predominantly inhabited by the Naga tribe, making it highly unlikely that the incident took place there.”
Though we have not been able to independently verify whether the viral video is from Manipur, we can confirm that it is unrelated to the Wayanad Lok Sabha byelection. The Election Commission of India (ECI) issued the notification for the Wayanad byelection on 15 October 2024, along with the Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections. Priyanka Gandhi filed her nomination for the Wayanad byelection on 23 October 2024. The byelection took place on 13 November 2024, with the counting held on 23 November 2024 (here). But this viral video has been circulating on social media since May 2024 (here and here) (archive here and here) for many months before the Wayanad Lok Sabha byelection.
Additionally, when the fact-checking team of ‘India Today‘ (archive) reached out to Deepti Mary Varghese, the General Secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee, she clarified that she is the media chief of Kerala Congress and confirmed that there is no individual named Mohammed Mujahid Islam in the media department of Kerala Congress.
To sum up, an unrelated video is shared with a false claim of Congress media in charge of Kerala killing a cow for Priyanka Gandhi’s Wayanad by-election victory.
This story was originally published by Factly, as part of the Shakti Collective. Except for the headline and excerpt, this story has not been edited by ABP LIVE staff.
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